Is there a history behind why D.m.'A' has an U for minimum temp?

I can tell you that it hit 26 and change this winter, and still looks great. Last winter it hit 25.4*, and it showed some minor leaf burn, but still held the majority of it's leafs.

I know John Nelson has it in the ground north of Houston where it gets to the lower 20's, and his dies back every year.

If I had to wager a guess I would put the min. temp. in line with many of the other Dendrocalamus' at 25*F.

Thanks,
That is how we get the information needed to fill in all of the 'U's

Bill

I have grown this plant here every since Darwin Nelson brought it into Texas. Mine is cold hardy up to 21 degrees F when it top kills. It froze and started coming back 3 times one winter a number of years back. Each time it warmed up that winter it would start growing out again. It recovered very fast and with much vigor that spring. A great performer. I list it as 21 min on our web page. Of course, cold duration, wind speed, humidity, ground moisture, age of plant, hardening off period, etc all effect the min temp.

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Steve Carter
Carter Bamboo
http://www.carterbamboo.com

cell (979)665-1897
Brazoria, Texas

In the last cold spell we had a few weeks ago, it got down to 25 F about 15 miles further inland and about 20 miles further North. I have a friend that has D.m.a., and lives in the aforementioned place, and he said the freeze at 25 F didn't do any damage to his D. m.a.

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Roy Rogers
Southern Tampania de la Floridana Universidad (STFU)
STFU Motto: All Bamboos are not Created Equal; @ STFU, the Search Continues
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ROY'S BAMBOO LIST

I guess I'll keep a journal on this one, especially since I bottom out around 25 each year. I should be able to keep a nice photo journal of the plant in relation to min temp...

This also brings up the debate about what constitutes the minimum temp of a plant. I have a wamin that is still holding a few leafs after hitting 26 when the source list min is 30. Do I think the list needs to be revised? Absolutely not! Although it may still be alive it looks like absolute hell.

continuing with my rambling... one that surprised me was G.maxima... it is listed with a min temp of 28, and as soon as it got below 30 it dropped it's leafs. Yes it is still alive at 28, but it's definitely worse for wear. I'd actually put it on par with the B. vulgaris' at 30.

Hopefully since I live right at the temp boarder of so many plants I'll be able to narrow down min temps for a few boo over the upcoming years, but as bamboo outlaw pointed out, there are more factors involved than just temp.

That's enough rambling for one post.

That will be good information and very much appreciated Mantis. You will be in a position to try things out. You don't really have the tall trees to protect the boo, so I think it will mean more to others in the same boat.

We really haven't had a freeze since 2004, so we just have to wait and see when the next one hits. Based on my experience down here, I will probably grow all the tropicals. Even if they get hit by a freeze and die to the ground, they will be back up the next year. The only problem will come if the clump gets fairly large and then it gets hit by a hard freeze and you have to cut all the dead culms down. That might be a lot of work.

I remember Richard Waldron in St. Petersburg talking about that from time to time. He eventually gave up on a lot of the tropicals.

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Allen D. Aleshire
Bamboo Nut Farm

http://www.boonut.com

My observation has been that in the 5th winter many species exhibit increased hardiness, often approaching their 'listed' tolerance (except for the many species that I believe will never approach the listed minimums ) for the first time so hang in there Mantis. That is one of the reasons that I am impressed with younger plants hanging in there while their 'hardier' & older peers are damaged.

I saw noticeable new damage in the past 24 hours due to a deep freeze yet with still positive temps, it is interesting to see some species with no burn at all while their hardy/older neighbors are slightly burned already. But we'll go below zero tonight so some topkill should be obvious in about a week and I expect about everything to be burned to some degree. Only +2F right now at 1 AM so this dawn will surely be the coldest this winter.

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Brad Salmon, zone 5b/6 Southern Indiana
Winters -20 to -25C. Summers 30 to 35C , humid. 115 cm annual precipitation, frost free from May through early October. 259.3 meters elevation. Growing 150+ species. http://www.needmorebamboo.com/

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm having a blast with this. When I buy my plants I know their listed minimums, so if they do die back I'm not too surprised, unless my observations are vastly different than what is in the list. I'm also not afraid to experiment... if I see a cool looking boo, but it's min temp is just outside my zone I'll give it a shot... who knows, the list could be off a couple degrees. Plus if some die it gives me an excuse to go find new boo for replacements.

Your fingers didn't see what your brain wanted to type. I only post this because it might lead people to the wrong conclusion about growing tropical bamboo in St. Petersburg, Florida. Your fingers should have typed St. Augustine Beach, Florida.

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Roy Rogers
Southern Tampania de la Floridana Universidad (STFU)
STFU Motto: All Bamboos are not Created Equal; @ STFU, the Search Continues
**********
ROY'S BAMBOO LIST

Absolutely correct... senior moment. Thanks Roy!!

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Allen D. Aleshire
Bamboo Nut Farm

http://www.boonut.com

I have a D. minor 'Amoenus' in a pot in our unheated barn so it looks OK now. I plan to put it in the ground later this summer, so will find out how badly damaged it will be around 18?F next winter.

Mike near Brenham TX

I was suffering some insomnia last night, so I decided to revisit this topic... I checked a couple books to see what they had the min temp listed for D. m.'A'. I only have 2 books that list D. minor 'Amoenus', but here is what I found:

Bamboo World (by Victor Cusak and Dierdre Stewart) has the min temp listed at -3* C, or 26.6* F.

Bamboo for Gardens (by Ted Meredith) has the min temp listed at 28* F.




I was browsing Caldwell's website, and there you have it listed as 24* min temp.

Bamboo Headquarters lists min temp at 25*F (For D. minor as they don't have D. minor 'Amoenus' listed)

Rainforest Bamboos lists it as 26*F

Rivers End Nursery lists it at 25*F

Tradewinds Bamboo lists it at 25*F

Tropical Bamboo's website is currently down ( HTTP/1.1 New Application Failed), so I'll update it later. *Edit* Tropical Bamboo lists min temp of 24* F.

Not sure where I'm going with this, really just adding some more info to the thread.